BSOD Becomes ‘Green Screen of Death’ For Windows 10 Testers

First there was a Black Screen of Death, where a Windows 3.x system would displays a screen with white text onto the black background when it crashed. Then after, around a time of Windows NT, the Microsoft switched to a Blue Screen of Death error, where the displayed screen of crashed PC contains a white text on a blue background. These errors block the screens that have been an important part of the Windows culture since forever. Now, the Microsoft is ready to take yet another measure step in its transition from old to new. Although, it seems that the newest and an unofficial Windows insider preview version of Win 10 is using a new GSOD (Green Screen of Death), according to MSPU reports.

The initial report were from Twitter, through a tweet sent out by Matthijs Hoekstra, Microsoft Senior Program Manager for the Windows Enterprise Developer Platform. One of the first Windows Insiders spotted by a Twitter user goes by a nickname Chris123NT who located the new Green Screen of Death (GSOD). According to the Matthijs Hoekstra, only Win 10 Insider builds will feature a green error screen, while stable Win 10 versions will continue to use a classic blue-themed death error page. Matthijs did not elaborate on the reasons behind this color change. One possible reason may be that Microsoft is trying to help the support staff, who had have a much simpler task differentiating from the errors in stable Windows 10 versions and the Insider build, that are in-developing versions, meant just only for testing, and prone to more issues.

Of course, the Microsoft’s being a bit tongue-in-cheek about this entire thing. In fact, Matthijs Hoekstra later clarified, the ‘Green Screen of Death’ is a feature of Windows Insider application in order to help the Microsoft engineers to differentiate between the stop screen issued by the production version of Win 10 and those which comes from the Windows Insider preview versions. Although, color-coding the error screen that would allow the technical support staff to triage the bugs and prioritize their valuable customers.

Green Screen of Death (GSOD) Added in Leaked Win 10 Build

The new Green Screen of Death is showing up in a leaked preview version of Win 10 Insider Build 14997, which made its way over the Internet during the holiday break. The new build offers up few interesting new Creators Build features, such as Edge browser enhancements, Cortana joining in onto the OOBE (out-of-box-experience), Start Menu folders, and also a blue light reduction function in order to reduce eye strain. From now on, anyone within the earshot of a Win 10 user who suffers a system crash will know if they are a Windows Insider as they shout “GSOD!” into the air instead of “BSOD!”. Besides, the Microsoft’s engineers will be able to take an immediate look at the screenshots to know if it is production Windows 10 or Windows Insider version which having issues. While this is yet another change to get used to, and it should make everyones’ life a little easier and a bit more colorful.